This invention generally relates to in-store advertising covers that are fitted over and installed on retail security systems adjacent store exits and entrances and, more particularly, to rendering such covers more compact for easier and less expensive shipping of the covers to the stores, to rendering such covers less cumbersome to install, and to rendering promotional material on such covers more visually prominent to passersby.
Retail security systems have been used in conjunction with radio frequency identification (RFID) devices or tag transponders affixed to retail merchandise. The tag transponders were removed or deactivated at checkout counters of a store at the time of purchase of the merchandise. The security systems were typically positioned at store exits and entrances and had RFID circuitry to electromagnetically detect the passage of any tag transponders that had not been removed or deactivated. The security systems emitted audible sounds and/or silent alarms to remote security personnel.
The RFID circuitry of each security system was typically housed in at least one of a pair of upright fixtures each measuring about four feet in height, two feet in width and two inches in depth near each store exit or entrance. Each pair of fixtures framed an aisle leading out of, or into, the store. Additional pairs of such fixtures could also be provided. The fixtures were easily noticeable, and their mere presence upset some customers who were disturbed by the store's silent allegation of stealing.
To at least partially conceal these fixtures, and to gain a retail benefit, U.S. Pat. No. 7,299,578 proposed that covers bearing promotional messages and advertising be fitted over these security fixtures. Thus, these advertising covers, not the fixtures, were noticeable upon entrance into the store, and upon exit therefrom.
As advantageous as these advertising covers were in concealing these fixtures, as well as in advertising merchandise or services offered in or outside the stores, the known covers have not proven to be altogether satisfactory. Their large size made them difficult and relatively expensive to ship to the stores, as well as cumbersome to install over the fixtures. Some installers had to stand on ladders to raise the covers to a height above the fixtures prior to lowering the covers onto the fixtures during installation. Some stores had insufficient ceiling clearance to allow the covers to be so raised. Also, each of these advertising covers had a generally rectangular cross section with planar, front and back, panels whose promotional information was best seen only when one stood directly in front of each panel.